Counter Opposition charge, TD men told

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, DEC. 12. The TDP president and Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, has exhorted party leaders to effectively counter the ``Opposition propaganda'' that his Government is found wanting in redressing the problems of farmers.

In an interactive session with district party conveners, coordinators and election observers, lasting more than three hours at the NTR Bhavan on Tuesday, Mr. Naidu dwelt at length on two issues - unremunerative prices for farm produce and power shortage.

He was sore that party leaders did precious little to educate farmers on the initiatives taken by the TDP government to provide them quality power for nine hours and to rescue them from distress sales in the ``unprecedented'' situation of excess production of foodgrains.

The TDP president desired that his party functionaries spread the message of reforms in every village. Only Andhra Pradesh was irreversibly set on the course of reforms unmindful of the transitory problems. The Opposition was politicising every initiative of his Government, which had adopted a ``leap-frog developmental strategy''. The party leaders should educate the masses and bring about an awareness on the need for reforms.

He flared up at a district convener, Mr. Ramulu, who said that the Government's intervention for procurement of paddy from farmers was belated. The district leader said the latest steps taken by the Government for procurement of rice and paddy were welcome but farmers would have appreciated if the initiative came at least a month in advance.

The Chief Minister promptly intervened to assert that there was no delay on the part of his Government and that he had alerted the Centre about the crisis even as he was on a tour of China. As the last resort, the TDP MPs staged a dharna in front of Parliament which yielded results with both the Governments gearing up machinery to procure 10 lakh tonnes of paddy directly from farmers and arranging export of 20 lakh tonnes of rice.

Mr. Naidu said he spoke to the Union Agriculture Minister this morning about the need to increase the duty on oil imports. A duty of 25 per cent was imposed on crude palm oil import which needed to be doubled to save the indigenous oil industry and farmers who were increasingly taking to oil seeds cultivation.

He lamented that the party leaders down the level were unable to explain to people these initiatives thereby giving scope for Opposition criticism. He said extensive publicity, especially on the electronic media, would, at times, lead to a hype. The grass- root level party activist was the most effective conveyor of the Government's policies and programmes to people.

In the course of interaction with party leaders, Mr. Naidu grew impatient when the discussion centered on the power problems. The power sector emerged as a challenge to the Government as the party workers did not have a proper understanding of the reforms. The other States, visited by the House Committee of the State Assembly, were appreciative of the changes in the power sector, he said.

The Chief Minister said the State would have to put up with the power shortage for a few months as the agricultural demand continued to shoot up.

The TDP president also elicited the views of the party leaders on programmes such as population and AIDS controls, literacy drive and Janmabhoomi.

Mr. Naidu regretted that the idea aired by him to licence sex workers as part of the crusade against AIDS evoked adverse criticism and even an apology was sought from him. He wanted a national debate on AIDS control and, therefore, called for breaking the silence on the issue.

He took a serious view of the ``missing membership books'' which, he said, smacked off indiscipline and indifference.

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Section  : Southern States
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